Of the 5,864 jams, over-height trucks, flat tires, stalled vehicles and cars running out of gas triggered 5,461 back ups -- or about 93 percent of the problem.

"That's personal responsibility," said Hampton Roads District Administrator Dennis Heuer. "We all can make an improvement on that."

Banking on the wow factor, VDOT opened its tunnel congestion statistics to the public Thursday during an open meeting in Ocean View where Heuer called for more accountability at the region's primary crossing.

"It's opening up our business," he said. "We're not going to get a new tunnel around here anytime soon so we've got to get people moving through as smoothly as possible.'

The meeting was put together by Heuer and the manager of the tunnel, Dwayne Cook, in the hopes that further education about congestion at the tunnel would help reduce preventable back-ups.

During the two-hour meeting about 70 people peppered Heuer and Cook with questions and suggestions. Some of the suggestions included escorting scared drivers through the tunnel, workers waving cars along and curtains around incidents to cut down on gawking.

For Allen Ayers, who has a 115-mile round-trip commute from his James City County home to his job in Virginia Beach, the meeting was an eye opener. "I have many times been stopped at the mouth of the tunnel to pull a truck out of traffic," Ayers said. "Now I know why."

The number one cause of stoppages at the bridge-tunnel -- over-height trucks -- is the focus of a new joint ticketing program between VDOT and the Virginia State Police. Last year, too-tall trucks caused almost 63 percent of all the stoppages at the HRBT.

Because of the height of the westbound tube VDOT turns away thousands of trucks each year leading to slowdowns as the trucks are pulled out of flow of traffic at Willoughby Spit or at the mouth of the tunnel and carefully re-routed.

Tunnel workers have always turned around the trucks, but the drivers were rarely cited for not obeying the warning signs so there was little deterrent for attempting to drive through.

Under the new plan, every driver that ignores the height warnings and makes it to the mouth of the tunnel will get busted with a ticket that could add as many as three demerit points to a driver's record.

Local lawmakers also are joining the fray with at least two bills proposed at the General Assembly in Richmond that would help VDOT crack down on the oversized rigs.

By more aggressively targeting over-height trucks VDOT officials hope to trigger smooth flow through the tunnel, which could also reduce the other problems. Less overall back-ups and dead stops would likely reduce the number of stalled cars -- 1048 in 2004 -- and the amount of drivers running out of gas -- 277.

Cook said VDOT workers are also sweeping the tunnel more frequently to trim down on the 461 flat tires that clogged the tunnel last year.

Cook, who took control of the tunnel a year ago, conceded the 188 accidents and the six fires in the tunnel most likely set off longer delays, but that doesn't mean that more knowledge isn't going to help reduce congestion.